Confederation of North America
The Confederation of North America, or C.N.A., is a nation occupying the eastern half of the North American continent. It was established by the Britannic Design in 1782 in response to the outbreak of the North American Rebellion of 1775 – 1778. The Britannic Design As originally set out in the Britannic Design, the C.N.A. was made up of five confederations united into a loose federation. The five confederations were 1) the Northern Confederation (N.C.), made up of the New England and mid-Atlantic colonies; 2) the Southern Confederation (S.C.), made up of the southern colonies; 3) the Confederation of Quebec; 4) The Confederation of Indiana, running from the Great Lakes to the Ohio River, and from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River; and 5) the Confederation of Manitoba, running from Lake Huron to the Rocky Mountains. A capital for the five confederations was established at Fort Pitt, which was soon renamed Burgoyne. Early Growth and Troubles When the Trans-Oceanic War broke out between Great Britain and Spain in 1795, the North American colonists invaded and annexed Spanish Louisiana, which was formed into the Confederation of Vandalia. In addition, settlers from Georgia annexed Spanish Florida, making Georgia the largest and strongest colony in the Southern Confederation. In the early part of the 19th century, growing industrialization led to the Northern Confederation becoming a center of commerce, while the invention of the cotton gin created a slave-based plantation system in the Southern Confederation which was subjected to repeated slave uprisings. Quebec was wracked by a series of Francophone uprisings, and Indiana was the scene of several bloody Indian wars. In the late 1830s the S.C. was faced with a catastrophic fall in the price of cotton, and saw the value of its slaves drop in response. By 1841 the S.C. adopted a program of compensated manumission and within two years slavery was abolished. At the same time, the N.C. underwent a period of violent labor unrest and near-dictatorial rule by Governor Henry Gilpin. The political leaders of the four major confederations met in Concordia, North Carolina and Brant, Indiana in 1841 to call for a more centralized government for the C.N.A. The British government agreed to the convening of a Grand Council in Burgoyne to amend the Britannic Design, resulting in the drafting of the Second Britannic Design. Among other provisions, the Second Britannic Design resulted in the Grand Council becoming a popularly elected legislative body of 150 members which elected a Governor-General to serve as chief executive. General Winfield Scott of Indiana became the C.N.A.'s first Governor-General under the new government after his Liberal Party won a majority in the 1843 Grand Council elections, with Gilpin as his Minister of War. The Rocky Mountain War Two years after Scott’s election, the Rocky Mountain War broke out between the C.N.A. and the United States of Mexico. All the action in the war consisted of North American incursions into Mexican territory. In March 1846 Generals Philip Lodge of the N.C. and Harry Chapin of Indiana crossed into the Mexican state of Mexico del Norte, and Colonel Martin Washington of the S.C. crossed the Mississippi River into Jefferson, while General Herbert Williamhouse made an amphibious landing at the Mexican port of Tampico in July and advanced on Mexico City. Washington's men were driven back over the Mississippi after two weeks of fighting. In August the other two North American armies were turned back, with Lodge losing 10,000 men to an army of Cheyennes, while Williamhouse was driven back to Tampico by Major Michael Doheny. A second North American invasion of Mexico del Norte in 1847 was also driven off, and Williamhouse was forced to pull out of Tampico in March 1848. An attempt by War Minister Gilpin to institute a draft in 1848 was met by strikes and anti-draft riots in the N.C., and Gilpin was forced to commit significant numbers of the C.N.A.'s armed forces to maintain control there and in Quebec. Gilpin was unsatisfied with Governor-General Scott's leadership, and in April 1849 he began intriguing against Scott, finally forcing Scott to resign the following month, and taking his place as Governor-General. Also in 1849, Gilpin sent an army under General David Homer west across the Rocky Mountains in an attempt to reach San Francisco. After wintering in Arizona, Homer crossed the Sierra Nevadas in 1850, but in July was defeated in battle by General Franco Hernandez's Californians and forced to turn back. A second Mexican army led by Doheny came upon Homer from the east, while a second North American army under General FitzJohn Smithers was hastily dispatched by Gilpin. The four armies remain locked in battle in the Sierra Nevadas through the winter of 1850-51, while suffering fearsome losses. The North Americans ultimately lost 113,000 out of 140,000 men, while the Mexicans lost 66,000 out of 97,000. Gilpin launched a new series of offensives in 1851 and 1852 that were no more successful than the earlier ones. By the time of the 1853 Grand Council elections, Gilpin was in disgrace. Gilpin's Liberal Party, nominated Councilman Bruce Harrison of the N.C. for Governor-General, while the opposition Conservative Party nominated Councilman William Johnson of Manitoba. The Conservatives won 91 Grand Council seats to the Liberals' 59, and Johnson took power as Governor-General on 16 February. Johnson and recently-elected Mexican President Hector Niles agreed to a battlefield truce in August while teams of negotiators from both nations met in The Hague. An arbitration panel consisting of representatives from the Germanic Confederation, the Netherlands, and Spain began meeting in November, and issued a final report on 15 June 1854. The report recommended that the U.S.M. cede a small portion of Mexico del Norte to the C.N.A., and that the C.N.A. pay the U.S.M. NA£2,500,000 in indemnities. The two nations accepted the panel's findings, and a formal peace treaty was signed on 7 August 1855. The Rise of the People’s Coalition The C.N.A. emerged from the Rocky Mountain War as an economic powerhouse, with economic growth fueled by British investment and population growth propelled by European immigration. The Confederations of Manitoba and Vandalia filled with settlers, and in 1879 Vandalia was divided into northern and southern sections (the population of the latter being mostly freed slaves from the S.C.). Socially, though, the country suffered from the disruption of the war and rapid population growth, as well as endemic political corruption. Poverty and overcrowding resulted in the rise of criminal gangs in the growing cities. As the Liberals and Conservatives grew identically feckless and corrupt, North Americans dissatisfied with the status quo formed a third party, the People’s Coalition (P.C.), in 1869. By the elections of 1873 the P.C. was able to run candidates for all 150 Grand Council seats. The P.C. gained a majority in the legislatures of New Hampshire, Virginia, and North Carolina, and elected ten members to the Grand Council. Five years later, despite the use of intimidation and violence by members of the older parties, the P.C. was able to increase its delegation in the Grand Council to 39. In 1883 the number rose further to 45, and finally in 1888 the P.C. gained a plurality of 73 seats, resulting in the election of P.C. leader Ezra Gallivan of Michigan City as Governor-General. The P.C.’s rise was mirrored by the fall of the Conservatives, who saw their membership in the Grand Council fall during this period from 77 to 49 to 23 to 9. Gallivan and Hermión As Governor-General, Ezra Gallivan had to walk a tightrope — at any time, the opposition parties in the Grand Council could unite to pass a no-confidence motion. If they did, though, Gallivan could call a special election that might result in an outright majority for the P.C. Gallivan also faced the radical wing of his own party, led by Councilman Thomas Kronmiller of Indiana. Gallivan reversed his predecessor's emphasis on foreign affairs, loosening ties with Great Britain and adopting a policy of benign neglect towards the dictatorial, expansionist dictatorship of Benito Hermión in the U.S.M. Gallivan was able to resolve the longstanding issue of Québécois separatism by sponsoring a plebiscite in Quebec, offering that Confederation the choices of remaining in the CNA, devolving to an autonomous associated status, or outright independence. On 6 July 1889 the Québécois chose associated status over independence or the status quo by 54% to 41% to 5%. In addition to defense spending cuts and tax cuts, Gallivan encouraged the National Financial Administration to offer low-interest loans to new businesses. Gallivan's policies were sufficiently successful and popular to win the P.C. an outright majority of 98 seats in the 1893 Grand Council elections. Gallivan's isolationist foreign policy became increasingly unpopular, though; both the Liberals and the Kronmiller wing of the P.C. continued to harp on the threat posed by Hermión. The reach of the San Francisco-based company Kramer Associates was expanding beyond the U.S.M. It financed railroads in Manchuria and the Argentine, a copper mine in the Congo, and a steel mill in Belgium. When K.A.'s interests in the Hawaiian Islands were threatened by local rulers in 1892, Hermión obligingly conquered and annexed the islands. When K.A.'s gold mines in Russian Alaska were expropriated by the Russian government in 1897, war erupted between Russia and the U.S.M. the next year. By October 1898, the U.S.M. has conquered Alaska. Although President Cortez of K.A. was satisfied with this result, Hermión was not; in the summer of 1899, Mexican troops invaded Siberia and set up a puppet regime there. Within months, revolution broke out in St. Petersburg and the Russian monarchy was overthrown. Over the next five years, the Russian Empire disintegrated. Hermión, meanwhile, declared himself Emperor of Mexico on April 2, 1901. In the C.N.A., Hermión's growing list of conquests created alarm. In the elections of 1898 the Liberals nominated an expansionist, Governor Douglas Sizer of Manitoba. Although the P.C. won 91 seats in the Grand Council, 20 members of the Council's P.C. caucus voted for Kronmiller for Governor-General. Following the Mexican occupation of Alaska, a wave of militarism swept the C.N.A. On January 10, 1899, Sizer called for Gallivan's resignation. Matters came to a head after the Mexican invasion of Siberia. On July 10 Councilman Fritz Stark of the S.C. claimed to have proof that Gallivan was secretly working for Kramer Associates. Riots broke out across the C.N.A., and assassination attempts were made on at least 16 of Gallivan's supporters in the Grand Council, one of which succeeded. Gallivan met with Stark on July 19 and insisted that his documents were forgeries. A special committee of the Grand Council investigated, and confirmed that the Stark papers were forgeries. Stark recanted on August 6 and committed suicide the next day, but the disturbances continued, and Gallivan finally resigned on July 24, 1901. The Years of the Pygmies Following Gallivan's resignation, the Grand Council's P.C. caucus chose Councilman Clifton Burgen of Northern Vandalia to succeed him. The ouster of Hermión in October calmed the panic that had gripped the C.N.A. Within a year of Gallivan's resignation, public opinion turned around, and he was seen as the victim of the country's irrational fears. Although he did not wish to resume the post of Governor-General, Gallivan was able to arrange for the nomination of his ally Councilman Christopher Hemingway of the N.C. in 1903. The P.C. won 83 seats in the Grand Council, and Hemingway became Governor-General. Governor-General Hemingway's term in office was uneventful. He continued Gallivan's isolationist foreign policy, declining membership in the United British Commonwealth when it was formed in 1906, though welcoming King Edward VII when he toured the C.N.A. the following year. Hemingway declined to run for re-election in 1908 and was succeeded by Indiana Councilman Albert Merriman, another Gallivan protégé. Following an invasion of the U.S.M. by France in the 1914 Hundred Day War, thousands of Mexican slaves who had been freed by the French were put on trial for treason. The trials provoked international outrage, especially within the C.N.A., where South Vandalian Governor Howard Washburne called for the slaves to be released and for the abolition of slavery in the U.S.M. 34 members of the Grand Council announced their support for Washburne, who formed an organization called Friends of Black Mexico (F.B.M.) to press the issue. On 4 January 1916, the day before a verdict will be announced on the imprisoned slaves, riots broke out in Mexico City, and a mob backed by the F.B.M. stormed the prison where the slaves were being held and freed them. When the North American government cracked down on the F.B.M., clashes broke out across the C.N.A. The Global War When slavery in the U.S.M. was abolished in 1920, Washburne sought to transform the F.B.M. into a broader reform movement aimed at ending racial discrimination in the C.N.A. He renames his organization the League for Brotherhood. The League attracted millions of middle-class whites, but they proved more interested in rejecting modern society than in equalizing it. After a summer of riots and demonstrations in 1922, Owen Galloway, President of North American Motors (and a descendant of Joseph Galloway), announced a plan to subsidize emigration within and from the C.N.A. Over the next seven years, nearly half a million North Americans moved overseas, while another 1.4 million relocated within the country. Councilman Henderson Dewey of Indiana brought the Liberals to power in the C.N.A. in 1923 by championing the Galloway Plan. He quietly decentralized political power, transferring control of the budget from Burgoyne to the confederations, and also assisting in the emigration of North Americans from the cities to the countryside. In 1928 the Liberals won 94 seats in the Grand Council, and Dewey gained a second term as Governor-General. On May 10, 1929, however, Dewey suffered a heart attack and died. Dewey's death precipitates a constitutional crisis in the C.N.A. Majority leader John Jenckinson convenes a Liberal Party caucus the following morning, though a quorum was not achieved until the morning of the 12th, when 71 of the 94 Liberal Councilmen choose Minister of Home Affairs Douglas Watson as the new Governor-General. He carried out Dewey's plan to decentralize the National Financial Administration, and subsidized roads, airlines and health care. In the elections of 1933 the Liberals won 104 seats in the Grand Council to the P.C.'s 46, and Watson remained Governor-General. Watson began to abandon isolationism, embarking on a tour of Europe, and returning to warn his cabinet that a major conflict was brewing. Despite opposition from the P.C. and many Liberals, he pushed for an alliance with the British and increased military spending. Watson's measures slowly made their way through the Grand Council through 1933 and 1934 until Owen Galloway announced his opposition, at which point public opinion turned against Watson. Councilman Bruce Hogg of North Vandalia introduced a bill of impeachment against Watson on January 10, 1935, but Watson was able to avoid impeachment. Kramer Associates’ decision to relocate their corporate headquarters from San Francisco to the Philippines in 1936 caused a worldwide recession, leading to the bankruptcy of the C.N.A.'s National Financial Administration, and defusing war tensions for a time. However, November 1937 saw the re-election of the imperialistic Karl Bruning in the Germanic Confederation and the combative George Bolingbroke in Great Britain, while elections in February 1938 brought about the defeat of Watson by Hogg in the C.N.A. and the re-election of the bellicose Alvin Silva in the U.S.M. War was finally sparked by an Arab uprising in the Ottoman Empire in August 1939, with the British supporting the Turks and the Germans the Arabs. War broke out between Britain and the Germanic Confederation in October, and lightning German offensives conquered France and the Ottoman Empire by the end of the year. A year later, three German armies struck east from the Ottoman Empire and overran India by December 1941. The U.S.M. attacked Japan in January 1942 and invaded China from Siberia. The Germans became bogged down in Indonesia while the Mexicans attacked across the Pacific. By 1944, though, the Mexicans and Siberians were being driven out of China and the Germans faced growing insurgencies in Europe. By the end of 1948 the Japanese had driven the Mexicans out of the western Pacific and overrun Siberia, while the Germans became involved in a series of wars among the Russian successor states. The Postwar World Although the C.N.A. remained neutral, Hogg provided arms to the British, who maintained themselves on the edge of a German-dominated Europe. Hogg suffered a stroke and died, and Grand Council President James Billington became Governor-General. Billington ran for his own term in 1953, but was defeated by Liberal Councilman Richard Mason. Mason embarked on a vast global reconstruction project, ignoring warlike moves by Mexican dictator Vincent Mercator. Mason was re-elected in 1958, but when he ran again in 1963 he faced a faction fight with his Minister for Home Affairs, Grover Speigal, that split the Liberal Party apart and resulted in victory for the People's Coalition candidate, Perry Jay. The detonation of an atomic bomb by Kramer Associates in June 1962 plunged the world into a nuclear arms race. The British detonated their own bomb in 1964, the Germans in 1965, and the C.N.A. in 1966. Attempts by the U.S.M. to acquire an atomic bomb remained unsuccessful as of 1971. Perry Jay resigned as Governor-General in 1966, to be succeeded by his Minister of Finance, Carter Monaghan, who won his own term as Governor-General in 1968 by defeating an opposition that had fractured into the Liberals and the Peace and Justice Party (P.J.P), with the latter winning 17 seats in the Grand Council.